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But I Won a Contest

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon May 8, 2014

Contests cost both time and money to enter. Not to mention effort. Are they worth it? Yes, they are. Becoming a finalist is one way to get noticed. Sometimes the first prize awarded the winner is publication with a certain publisher.

But will a contest win always lead to publication? No. I have been and continue to be a judge for many different contests, and here are three reasons why I can tell you that a contest final, or even a win, won’t always lead to publication:

1.) You never know what entries the contest will attract. Even the same contest will attract different levels of entries from year to year. One year, all three finalists may find publication. The next year, perhaps none of the finalists will be published — at least with those entries. What happens in the publishing world itself depends on quality, timing, and other factors.

2.) Contest judges consider entries against each other and have no need to consider what’s available on the market.When judges rate and rank entries, they are not comparing those to all other books in the category currently available to readers. But when an editor is judging your manuscript for possible publication, she must consider every other book in the category at her house and published by others, ranging from the unknown but talented author to the perennial bestseller. So while your entry may win against the immediate competition in a contest, the going is tougher at a publishing house.

3.) Contest judges are reading based on merit alone, not what is marketable. A story that is totally out of the box may be amusing, entertaining, well-crafted, and could win a contest. But this type of proposal is more difficult to market in CBA than some of the more popular categories. A contest win may help an unusual book get noticed, but finding an agent to offer enthusiastic representation and then a publisher to take a chance on something way out of the box is a different exercise than winning a contest. For that matter, even a sweet-spot CBA story may be difficult to market for various reasons. See Point 2.

This post is not meant to discourage contest entries, but to bring a semblance of realism to the process. Indeed, I have found wonderful, talented authors through contests. So keep entering. Just be strategic and know that God is in control.

Your turn:

Have you ever placed in or won a contest? What happened?

Did you find an agent or publisher through a contest?

What contest do you think is the best to enter?

The Writer’s Pod

By Karen Ballon April 30, 2014

When I was at the Mount Hermon Writers’ Conference a week or so ago, I went to one of my all-time favorite places: The Santa Cruz Wharf. It’s one of the best places to see the sea lions, which are draped all over the pilings of the wharf, as well as swimming and playing in the water around it. A few years ago, I saw something I’d never seen before. A group of sea lions all floating together. Come …

Category: Career, Communication, Conferences, Creativity, Karen, Platform, The Writing LifeTag: Community, Conferences, The Writing Life

Success! Are You Ready?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon April 24, 2014

Recently one of our faithful readers asked, since there are so many blogs about handling failure, if I would write a blog on how to handle success. Here are a few of my thoughts, in no particular order: Once you are successful, prepare to… …be gracious. Whether you struggled for years to be published or if you’ve never heard the word “no” from an agent or editor, when …

Category: Book Business, Career, Money, Platform, Tamela, Writing CraftTag: Career, Success

Generally Speaking, Think of Someone in Particular

By Dan Balowon April 22, 2014

Any mode of communication requires an audience to justify itself. Even someone shouting on a street corner will have someone hear them, if even in passing. An audience of one only goes so far. While everyone talks to themselves, if you do it too much, you will end up talking to a psychiatrist. However, there are benefits of talking to yourself. Comedian George Carlin once said, “The …

Category: Branding, Communication, Dan, Platform, Writing CraftTag: Audience, Communication

Don’t Just Do It

By Dan Balowon March 25, 2014

I don’t like the word “just”. Don’t get me wrong, “just” is a fine word, especially when used in a triple-word space in Scrabble. It has all sorts of good uses and meanings…even used to fill time when we are thinking, along with the other great words and phrases of our culture, such as “like”, ”um”, “I mean” and ”you know.” I simply do not like the word “just” when it is used to place limits on …

Category: Career, Creativity, Dan, PlatformTag: Attitude, Career

How to Be A Reader’s Favorite Author

By Dan Balowon March 18, 2014

Last week in this space, I wrote about how you could become a publisher’s favorite author (other than selling millions of books). Today, we’ll go a little different direction and talk about what you would need to do to become a favorite author to your readers. A key difference between how you relate to a publisher and how you relate to a reader is that one is business and one is personal. An …

Category: Branding, Career, Communication, Craft, Creativity, Dan, Marketing, PlatformTag: Authors, Career, readers

Two Important Ingredients for Success

By Karen Ballon March 12, 2014

I’ll never forget the day, just after church, when a friend pulled me aside and said, “My son can’t find a job and he needs to make some money fast. So he’s going to write a book. Any advice for him?” Yeah, well, the advice I had wasn’t for him, it was for her: “Don’t ever say anything like that to me again.” Whatever gave people the impression that writing was a get-rich quick …

Category: Book Business, Career, Creativity, Karen, PlatformTag: Career, perseverance, Success

How to Be A Publisher’s Favorite Author

By Dan Balowon March 11, 2014

Three years ago, Seth Godin published his book Linchpin. Since I follow Seth’s books and blog as a personal and professional challenge, I read it and was inspired by it’s concepts. In it, Godin speaks about some of the new realities in business relationships. There used to be management and those who were managed. But now, he says, there is a third group…linchpins. These are people who make …

Category: Book Business, Branding, Career, Dan, PlatformTag: Authors, Career, publishing

Why Not Take a Chance?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon November 7, 2013

Often I receive queries and proposals in which the author will say his submission is out of the box. I'm not opposed to groundbreaking work, but I have to decide what will and what won't work for me. I am the first to admit, this process is subjective. Our own Steve Laube is routinely teased by a couple of his successful author friends he turned down. If an agent as wise as Steve Laube misses a …

Category: Agents, Book Business, Book Proposals, Get Published, Platform, TamelaTag: Agents, book proposals, Editors, Get Published

Build it Before They Come

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon June 30, 2011

If you want to be a published writer, realize that someone will look for you on the web. Agents will Google your name. I guarantee that editors and marketing folks will visit your web site to find out more about you.

Thus your web site needs to be both professional and effective. It is a bit like putting on your “Sunday Best” before going to an interview. That first impression is …

Category: Communication, Get Published, Marketing, Platform, TamelaTag: Author Websites, Book Business, Marketing, Platform, Tamela